posted August 31, 2016 11:10 AM            

Despite fighting a three-front war against Democrats, Never Trump Republicans, and the mainstream media, Donald Trump supporters’ resolve is only stronger.

I’m black and I’m proudly supporting Donald Trump for president of the United States. I’m not only supporting Trump this November, but also voted for Trump in the Republican primary this past March.

Some may feel I’m playing the race card by declaring my ethnicity. But I only do so because I’m in a demographic that’s supposed to be anti-Trump: a (late) millennial black male with graduate-level education. I’ve read Trump’s book “Crippled America,” watched several rallies online, and read his policy positions. I’ve investigated the claims of racism, sexism, xenophobia, mocking a disabled reporter, and being a business failure—all of which I’ve found to be patently false.

I can explore those accusations in detail on another day. What you need to know is I’ve done my research. Here it is.

1. Freedom of Choice

Unlike most Americans, 72 percent of whom supported the Iraq War when it started, I was against that war from the beginning. I was disappointed to see the Republican Party jump headfirst into two major wars at the turn of the twenty-first century, embrace massively increased government spending, and embrace the erosion of civil liberties in the name of allegedly increased security.

That’s why it was a breath of fresh air watching Trump’s rallies and realizing his beliefs mirror my own: although he’s in the Republican Party, he’s not part of the big government, pro-war faction that has taken over in recent decades. Like me, and unlike Hillary Clinton, he was against the Iraq War shortly after it started and has been consistent on that in the 13 years since then, contrary to claims otherwise.

I almost had an emotional moment watching him blast the Iraq War to pieces in South Carolina. Wow! That’s a bold and risky thing for a Republican candidate to do, and it shows courage. More broadly, because Trump hasn’t had strong allegiances to either party in the past, he has the freedom to decide policies without regard to the party line. As such, he’s crafted a beautiful, nonpartisan policy plank to address the key issues facing our nation in the coming decades: an end to illegal immigration, aggressive job creation through better trade policy and tax policy, a stop to endless wars, and dismantling political correctness. Now that’s exciting!

Almost every major problem the United States is facing can be attributed to one of those four issues. Trump is the first major candidate to buck the bipartisan consensus on these and take a pro-America position. This is because he has the freedom to choose the best policies without bowing to partisanship or bad tradition.

2. He’s Better for Black People

Black people are in crisis. Families are completely broken, with 70 percent of kids born to single mothers. There’s an astronomical crime rate, extremely poor school performance, and the highest unemployment rate of any racial group. There’s a thug culture that elevates violence, misogyny, and accepting incarceration as inevitable. Studies even show black kids’ popularity decreases as their GPA increases, which means that parts of the culture sadly value being dumb.

Yet against all this, black folks are being coddled with a simplistic, cowardly message that blames racism and white privilege as the source of all these problems, and sees more government programs as the solution. But the War on Poverty and the $22 trillion spent on it have been a stunning failure at raising the conditions of black people. I’ve personally observed abuse of the welfare system.

Trump will not go for this. He will not blame police for the problem of black crime, he will not blame racism for the dramatic problem of black underachievement, and he will stop illegal immigration, which will increase wages and job opportunities for all unskilled American workers, especially black folks.

So while Hillary says, “Let’s fix white people to solve black problems,” Trump says “Let’s fix black people to solve black problems.” If you love someone, you don’t blame their issues on someone else. You help them look in the mirror. Trump’s philosophy is the right one to start the hard process of healing the black community. That’s why he’s better for black people.

3. Courage

Trump is a white version of a black preacher. No, he’s not talking about spiritual matters. But he has the persona, charisma, confidence, and focused message to uplift and captivate, just like a good preacher. I try to watch Trump rallies online when I can, and after every one, I feel like political correctness has been smashed, the space for honest conversation has been expanded, and those of us who are not PC have been empowered, all a little bit more than when we started.

Indeed, because of Trump, entire realms of conversation that were previously off-limits or not often discussed due to fear of the PC police are now on the table. I can talk about the devastating depth of black crime and the failure of government solutions to solve the problem. I can talk about the negative impact of illegal immigration, especially on poor Americans. I can talk about tremendous media bias in favor of the Democrats, which this election cycle is unmasking like never before, and about the degree to which both parties have been in cahoots on trade and endless war.

Regular Americans like me can talk about these issues more boldly because Trump led the way for us. This is how leaders transmit courage.

4. Financial Independence

I’m concerned about the influence of money in politics. Yet Trump, already being independently wealthy, does not need to take money from the big donors who have until now exercised strong control over both parties. Since they’re not giving him money, they cannot dictate his positions. He is free to decide his positions based on the needs of the nation, not what’s best for mega-donors and special interests. This is also known as independence, one of the core American virtues.

I’ve donated to the Trump campaign more than I’ve given to any other presidential candidate before (which admittedly is not a huge amount), because when I give to Trump I know I’m not being drowned out by billionaires. It seems many agree; Trump raised the bulk of his money in July from small donors like me, while Clinton, by contrast, is heavily backed by big-money Super PACs—mega-donors she’ll listen to before she obeys those pesky regular Americans (like me).

5. Donald Trump Likes My Neighborhood

After having lived on the east coast, the west coast, and in Tokyo, my favorite place of all is the town I grew up in and now live in. It’s a very American Midwestern town that’s not too big and not too small, where people know each other more than on the coasts, housing prices are cheaper, and people of different races get along.

Because I love my town, I don’t want it to become like Mexico or Somalia, and I say that with the greatest respect to the poor people in those countries. I don’t want to go to our mall that I grew up going to as a kid only to face regular terrorist attacks like what is happening in Germany after accepting of 1 million “refugees” from the Middle East. In fact, a recent study found that half of all Germans feel like strangers in their own country! I would rather not feel that way in my own city.

Further, did you know that from 2007 to 2014, more people were killed in the Mexican drug wars than in Iraq and Afghanistan combined? That’s a stunning 160,000 souls dead in Mexico. My heart breaks for the poor people of that country. But unlike Iraq and Afghanistan, the Mexican war zone is right next door to us, yet stunningly the border with Mexico is unprotected, allowing drugs, drug cartel members, and criminals to enter our communities freely.

Border Patrol agent Chris Cabrera indicates, “at best we apprehend 35-40% of the illegal immigrants attempting to cross. This number is even lower for drug smugglers who are much more adept at eluding capture.” This is totally unacceptable. I don’t want the Mexican drug wars to come to our town the way they have come to Southern California and the border states. Trump is the only candidate who really understands the heart of people like me who care about how this issue will affect our towns.

Democrats are extremely hostile to these kinds of concerns because uncontrolled illegal immigration will bring in millions of new Democratic voters, and Republicans haven’t taken up the issue because they don’t want to be seen as racist and or their supply of cheap labor interrupted. All this means Trump is the only man left standing who wants to protect my neighborhood from similar fates.

He’ll do this in two ways: By issuing a temporary moratorium on immigration from countries with a history of supporting terrorism, and by building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, along with greatly strengthening border enforcement, to stop illegal immigration. The combination of these policies could prevent American communities like mine from becoming like Germanystan or Juarez, Mexico (until recently the murder capital of the world). I support Trump because he cares about protecting my neighborhood.

6. Record of Execution

As a former software engineer, I understand that building actual products that have to work with quality and precision is harder than simply delivering rhetoric. Trump gets this. He has a track record of execution. Building a gigantic skyscraper requires bringing various parties to the table for intense negotiations and making sure all parties’ needs are met. It requires meeting deadlines, strict safety standards, and budgets, and building a reputation that attracts clients, partners, and investors for future projects.

These megastructures must function properly for all clients, whether Republican or Democrat, black or white. If the power grid in a skyscraper doesn’t work, you can’t blame racism or a vast right-wing conspiracy. You just have to make it work, no excuses. This is in contrast to a number of career politicians of both parties, of whom many have actually produced nothing of tangible value.

7. Protecting the Constitution

Last but not least, at least two Supreme Court picks may need filling during the coming years, and Trump would nominate justices who would interpret our Constitution correctly and faithfully. Trump has made public a list of justices he would nominate and it’s impressive. I believe Clinton, by contrast, would nominate judges that would use the court as a platform for ideological activism, eroding core aspects of our American culture that I treasure, such as the First Amendment, the Second Amendment, and others. There’s no way I can support that.

As For Hillary Clinton

Although I believe Trump would make a better president than Clinton, my support for Trump is not driven by distaste or hatred of Clinton. It’s driven by my belief that Trump is energizing, uplifting, and speaks to the issues I care about. That’s why I’ve avoided bashing Hillary, even though she has much that can legitimately be criticized. That being said, a word bears mentioning regarding a deal-breaking disqualifier for Clinton

The evidence we have indicates the Clinton Foundation and Clinton Global Initiative are a billion-dollar pay-for-play criminal influence-peddling and racketeering operation.

The evidence we have indicates the Clinton Foundation and Clinton Global Initiative are a billion-dollar pay-for-play criminal influence-peddling and racketeering operation of a complexity, scale, and brazenness that would make Al Capone blush. They took money from foreign entities and gave out U.S. government favors in return, with Hillary using her (illegal) private email server at home—outside of government security screening—to operate the scheme. I suspect this is what the 33,000 deleted emails will reveal.

That the founders of this scheme are still walking free is a miracle rivaling the raising of Lazarus from the dead, and would be the story of the century if the mainstream media had any sense of investigative spirit and nonpartisan objectivity left. Since I’ve lived in Japan—a country run by organized crime—I don’t want my beloved country to meet the same fate. I thus could never entrust our presidency to the namesake of the Clinton foundations. (For this same reason, even if I hated Trump I could never stay home on election day or vote third party, because purely from a mathematical perspective, those actions help Clinton to gain a plurality of the vote.)

Although I believe accusations of racism and other isms against Trump are totally without merit, some parts of Trump’s platform give me a little concern. Those include his position on the minimum wage, the depth of his newfound commitment to the pro-life position, and his statements on attacking ISIS that indicate he could possibly repeat the futile warmongering of the early 2000s. But my response to those legitimate concerns, and why I believe they are not deal breakers, is for another article.

posted September 01, 2016 05:05 PM            

#2 is a complex issue. I for one do not blame all the ills of the Black community on white racism but I am not convinced Trump will be better for Blacks. He doesn't know how to talk to people, so he is bound to ruffle more feathers than create and build the bridges necessary to positively engage the black community.

#3, I don't see Trump as being more courageous. Having a big mouth which he never had to censure while he was a financial mogul is no proof of courage.

#4. Financial independence made me laugh but I don't have time to go over it now.

#5. The immigration issue: that's probably the main reason why Trump is so popular. He has eschewed the PC line represented by the democrats and has tapped into a nerve. Many Americans are nervous or afraid about the prospect of their lifestyles being altered by the growing number of immigrants (which is changing the demographic makeup balance of the US), and some of them from countries that have histories of terrorism. And the PC line about immigration doesn't acknowledge or address those fears. Trump for once acknowledges it and uses it to his advantage.